IRRATIONAL BELIEFS AS A FACTOR OF PROFESSIONAL DISADAPTATION OF MEDICAL WORKERS

Abstract

Relevance: The WHO Bulletin (2000) indicated that between one and five people in the working population have some form of mental health problem at any given time (1). This figure is on the rise and has been proven to affect their employability, work efficiency and quality of life. These problems are also common among healthcare workers, with more than 20% of healthcare workers worldwide experiencing mental health problems (2-4). Irrational and rational cognitions/beliefs are evaluative cognitive attitudes (structures) consistently associated with distress and psychopathology; at the same time, rational thinking is a determining factor for emotional stability. Goals of the study: 1. To conduct a comparative analysis of irrational attitudes in medical residents as a factor of professional maladaptation at the stage of clinical residency. 2. To formulate recommendations for its timely correction. Research Methodology: The methodology for diagnosing irrational attitudes (Survey of Personal Beliefs, SPB) was developed on the basis of the theory of rational-emotive therapy (RET) by Albert Ellis. The following authors’ methods were used: 1) Diagnosis of irrational attitudes - the Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB) by H. Kassinove; 2) Questionnaire of socio-psychological adaptation, SPA (Test of Personal Adjustment) by K. Rogers, R. Diamond. Results: It was revealed that the majority of medical residents had a high value of irrational attitudes on the scales "Obligation towards oneself" and "Catastrophization". The results of the empirical study revealed significant differences between the two groups of residents using the Statistics 21.0 application package and the Mann-Whitney univariate statistical test. Conclusions and Recommendations: Residents at the stage of training in clinical residency use two irrational (erroneous) attitudes as Obligation to oneself and Catastrophization, which interfere with adequate cognitive processing, and also serve as an additional source of stress for medical workers. The schemes of psychological support of the residents were developed in order to identify irrational beliefs and timely correct them using psychological techniques (cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, rational-emotive therapy) at the stage of training in clinical residency.